Pine is one of four plants often singled out as the core of wild food knowledge, alongside cattail, oak and grass, because it grows across so much of North America and offers something in every season. The sharp needles and rough bark give the opposite impression. Look closer and a pine offers seeds in autumn, a vitamin-rich tea all year, pollen in spring and a starchy inner bark that is there even under snow.
First, make sure it is a pine
Eat nothing from a tree you have not positively identified. True pines (genus Pinus) carry their needles in small bundles of two to five, held together at the base by a papery sheath. Spruces and firs carry single needles. The dangerous confusion is yew (Taxus), an evergreen shrub or small tree with flat, single needles and red, cup-shaped berries. Every part of a yew except the red flesh is poisonous, including the needles and the seed, and yew is planted in yards and parks all over the country.
Two more cautions apply to the tea. Norfolk Island pine, the potted houseplant, is not a true pine and should not be used. Ponderosa pine needles are known to cause abortion in cattle, and pregnant women are generally advised to avoid pine needle tea of any species.
Pine nuts
Every pine produces seeds inside its cones, but size varies enormously. The white pine and pitch pine of the Northeast give seeds so small they hardly repay the effort. In the Great Basin and the Southwest, the pinyon pines produce the large, rich nuts sold in stores, and a good stand in a good year can supply a serious amount of food.
Gather cones in September and October, when they have begun to open. Shake or pick the seeds out, crack the shells and eat the kernels raw or roasted.
Pine needle tea
Needles from true pines make a mild, pleasant tea, lighter and less resinous than most people expect, and a useful source of vitamin C.
- Strip a good handful of fresh green needles from the tree.
- Chop them as fine as you can with a knife, or bruise them with a stone.
- Pour water that has just come off the boil over the needles in a cup.
- Cover and steep for 10 to 20 minutes, until the water turns pale yellow.
- Strain and sweeten with honey if you have it.
Many older instructions say to boil the needles for a minute or two. Vitamin C breaks down with heat, so steeping in hot water rather than boiling keeps more of it.
Pine pollen
In spring, the small male cones at the tips of the branches swell and turn yellow with pollen. Hold a bag or jar under a cluster and shake, and a fine yellow powder falls out. It can be stirred into stews to thicken them or mixed into flour. It is a modest source of protein. Anyone with pollen allergies should try a very small amount first or leave it alone.
Inner bark
The part of pine bark that is food is the cambium, the soft, pale layer between the rough outer bark and the wood. People in northern Europe and North America ate it through lean winters for centuries.
Choosing your tree
Cutting bark wounds a tree, and stripping a ring all the way around it (girdling) kills it. The best source is a pine that has just been blown down or cut, or a large branch recently lost in a storm. If you must take from a standing tree, pick a large, mature one and remove a single vertical strip no wider than about a tenth of the trunk’s circumference, so it can heal. On land that is not your own, including parks and national forests, get permission first. Eastern white pine is widely considered one of the best-tasting.
Collecting the inner bark
- Set the point of a strong fixed-blade knife against the bark and tap the spine with a stick to drive it through the outer layer.
- Keep striking the spine to run the blade down, then across, then back up, until you have outlined a rectangle.
- Pry off the outer bark. Much of the cambium will peel away with it.
- Separate the pale inner layer from the outer bark in strips.
- Scrape the wood with the knife edge to collect what stayed on the trunk. That last layer is the most tender and the sweetest.
Cooking it
Boiled, thin strips of inner bark soften but stay bland and fibrous. It is the least appealing method and not much better than chewing it raw.
Frying is far better. Cut the bark into thin strips and fry them in butter or oil until they turn medium brown and crisp, then salt them. The result eats rather like a potato chip.
Strips dried thoroughly and pounded make a flour to stretch other meal in bread or porridge.